A humidifier is an appliance that increases humidity (moisture) in a single room or in an entire house.
The most commonly used humidifier is an evaporative or wick humidifier including a water reservoir, a wick immersed in water and a fan adjacent to the wick. The reservoir is a containing tank of water filled prior to and/or during operation and provides water for a moisture output. The wick is a water screen, a water absorbing medium or a filter that absorbs water from the reservoir. The fan creates an air flow which passes through the wick and carries moisture into the room, thus aiding in the evaporation of the water within the wick and the enhancement of humidity.
For evaporative efficiency requirements, a traditional evaporative humidifier usually includes a large fan arranged in a fan housing and corresponding large-area grilles extending almost entirely over a rotary plane of the fan for redirecting the humidified air out of the humidifier. This traditional evaporative humidifier has a disadvantage of not allowing for a large user interface arrangement since an upper surface of the evaporative humidifier is at large occupied by the grille. Moreover, the large-area grilles or other attempts to redirect the humidified air at an edge of the fan to a middle of the fan will increase the pressure drop of the fan housing, reduce the efficiency of the fan and result in a loud noise of the fan, thus lowering the efficiency rating of the evaporative humidifier.
Accordingly, there is a need of a new evaporative humidifier with improved air flow path and efficiency rating.